Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged and Changed a Nation by John Boyko

Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged and Changed a Nation by John Boyko

Author:John Boyko [Boyko, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Presidents & Heads of State, Biography & Autobiography, Post-Confederation (1867-), History, Political, Politics, Canada
ISBN: 9780864926692
Google: rt4PqAAACAAJ
Goodreads: 13811474
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
Published: 2010-04-05T00:00:00+00:00


In a democracy such as Canada’s, voters choose their political leaders according to a number of factors. Among them is the belief that a particular candidate will be able to handle with calm, reason, and resolve whatever challenges the Fates may devise. Voters sometimes think they are choosing a leader but end up with a manager. Good managers are those whose experience, values, and character are such that when difficult decisions arise, they are able to intelligently pick the best option given the facts known at the time. Good leaders are those who are able not only to do that, but more. They are also able to shape events and bring to fruition novel ideas and, in so doing, steer that which they lead in a new direction and thereby bring benefit to all. Good managers choose well between options while inspired leaders create new options from which to choose. Important leaders do more than play the rules of the game well — they change the game. R.B. Bennett was such a leader.

While working throughout his tenure as prime minister to provide relief to suffering Canadians and increase international trade to spur an economic recovery, Bennett was also creating three institutions that have become icons in Canada’s statehood. In so doing, he changed the way Canadians relate to each other and the manner in which the Canadian state does business. In one way or another, and to different degrees and in different ways, each of the three brings benefit to the Canadian nation and state to this day.

Bennett helped to protect and promote Canadian culture and social uniqueness through his creation of what became the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He moved Canada toward becoming a global trading power while helping virtually every sector of the economy through advancing the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Bennett also created the Bank of Canada, which modernized the Canadian economy by providing an instrument through which monetary policy would be more professionally and centrally managed, with the inevitable boom-bust capitalist cycles rendered less extreme and destructive.

In all three cases, Bennett found many important and powerful people and groups advising or even threatening him to slow down or to do nothing at all. Those on the political right in his cabinet and caucus did all they could to stop him from putting his Tory principles so blatantly into practice. Those on the left, meanwhile, were frustrated by his unwillingness to do more or do it more quickly. In each case it would have been easier and more popular to do nothing. But effective leaders do not shrink from challenges or wilt in the face of criticism.

CANADIAN RADIO BROADCASTING CORPORATION

By the mid-1920s, commercial radio was thriving in Europe and the United States. Like early television and later the Internet, radio was not just a technological marvel and source of entertainment but also a new and exciting conduit through which those within a country gathered news and opinion and so engaged in a grand civic conversation. At its best, radio was a means through which citizenship could be enhanced.



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